Bet On You - Bakugo X Reader (College AU)

PART 13: Falling For You

(AN: I might need to come back and make some minor changes... wanted to get this chapter out as soon as I could ♡ It's taken me a while to piece this scene together, but I think I've got it right... Let me know your thoughts)

You would need an extra set of fingers and toes to count the number of times you'd truly fallen in your life. A life of power comes at the cost of failure. Learning to fly, you have to fall.

But, for the first time, falling like this, plummeting through the sea of empty blue, lost in the stars, wind biting your skin, clothes flapping, weightless inside, you hadn't lost; you were free. Finally, letting your barriers down since the day you stood up to Katsuki Bakugo and saw a future in his fire.

The menace who you'd finally just accepted had never been a threat, but a friend, held you to his chest, cradling your head, clutching his arms around you – not as a hero to a victim but more so the opposite. Drawing you nearer in fear. Perhaps, still afraid you'd throw yourself away.

"C'mon," he ushered. "Pull it together. Land us somewhere quick or I'm doin' this the hard way."

The city below was nearing in speckled lights and high buildings, reaching into the night. Bakugo's 'hard way' would probably involve explosions eating at your clothes, leaving you in soot and sweat and smoke.

Even at your lowest, he could still spur your fighting spirit.

You took a deep, but shaky breath, and picked yourself up in the wind current, holding Bakugo, taking yourselves into the heart of the city. After a quick semi-crash landing on a rooftop and skidding into the gravel, you were finally back to your senses. Grounded again.

Bakugo stood before you, his face engulfed in the moonlight while you faced him in shadow.

"...I...I don't know where to start," you admitted, backing away, only to bump into the edge of the roof, left with no where else to go.

"Dumbass... Just relax for a second," he spat, shaking his head as though it was answer enough. "Some night this was..."

He brushed past you, putting a hand to your shoulder, gently nudging you to the edge where you sat together, looking down at the empty street.

"That's the park right there, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he scoffed with amusement. "And our regular trail. The bench. The wrinkly old tree."

"...Where we made this bet in the first place."

It was like staring at a single domino, on the verge of tipping, watching the train of them tumble in succession. Leading to the stumble, the fall, the flight, the plummet, the rooftop now.

"I thought I told you to forget about the damned thing... Caused enough of a mess."

After such a night, the bet you'd made on your run together earlier that week on that crisp early morning was but a single weed in the murky pond. You'd already fallen twice over. But, the saying goes, 'Once you've reached the bottom, you can only go upwards'.

"I'm sorry, for running away. And for losing my cool back there. I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't tell Mina – I couldn't tell you – and I just... thought I needed to be alone."

"...Huh? Couldn't tell me what?" Bakugo folded his arms.

His end of the deal had always been to answer his secrets. If he had any. And though he hadn't lost, for some reason, you had a feeling, he seemed to be willing to.